First Student Photos

The 5th graders had some fun today with the photo booth and props. This class has a bunch of awesome readers & they love to share about what they're reading!

Photo Booth Fun

There are two bulletin boards for the library--one inside and one outside. The outside one I rotate monthly (when all goes well) but the one inside the room I like to make interactive and keep it for the whole school year. Last year, we had a world & US map and pushpins for students to mark the settings of books they read. It was mostly 5th & 6th grade that used this, and here's the map we came up with:

I totally forgot to save the interactive version of this map before exiting the tab, so it's just a screenshot, but it give you a good idea. Obviously, we read from many others too, but these are the ones the kids submitted.

This year, I thought it'd be fun to do a green screen/photo booth area. I'm not exactly sure how it will develop throughout the year, but I'm hoping it turns into something fun. I'm still looking for a good app that will allow green screen use or an app similar to the computer version of photo booth that replaces the 'backdrop' with an image. That's what I had the teachers use, but I'm hoping for an app for the kids since they all have iPads.

I bought some simple props to use to share our love for books.

I found these wood speech bubbles at Michael's, and painted them with chalkboard paint. I didn't think to sand them first, so they don't erase super well, though. I'll have to fix those soon...

I also got some other fun wood pieces and painted them fun colors. I was trying to find things that both girls and boys could enjoy, but it was kind of tricky. I'm keeping my eyes open for new things to add.

I put the wood props, along with some nerdy glasses (some from Target's dollar section and some leftover from my birthday party last year--don't judge) in a basket near the bulletin board.

I hung a fun picture frame, and the speech bubbles on the board with pushpins. There are extra pushpins on the board, so the props can be moved around. I hate the yellow/green combo, but I'm hoping to use the green as a green screen, like I said. The worst part is the local news came in and shot in my room looking towards this board! Bah!

Why couldn't they have shot towards this wall...?

Here are a few staff photos using the props. We just used the backdrops in photo booth on my Mac since I haven't found an iPad app that I like. Obviously I need to get some better lighting, because the shadows make the backdrop disappear and you can see through. The kids had fun looking at these on their first day, though!

Me, bragging about how many books I read this summer and holding up four of my favorites.

Our guidance counselor, Ms. Cline, showing her love for When You Reach Me.

Sixth grade teacher, Ms. Kremer, hanging out on the moon with The Serpent's Shadow. This lady reads like crazy and I love it!

And, finally, our business teacher, Ms. McCarthy, hashtagging her love for The Hunger Games.

Hoping to have some great fun with this during the year! Will post more pictures as kids take them.

Things I Forgot & Things I'm Thankful For

It's the Friday after the first full week of school. I've been in my pajamas since 7:30. I ate frozen pizza for dinner, and I'm drinking hot tea, because my voice is half gone. I've got a book waiting for me, so this is going to be a list more than a post.

I forgot...

• how early 5:45 is
• how I have to pack up my 4 bags and set out my clothes at night, or I'll never make it on time in the morning
• how awesome it is when I give a student the perfect book
• how hard it is to recommend books if I haven't read them
• that I have to strategically plan my bathroom breaks
• how small kindergarteners are
• that students of all ages are obsessed with holding stuffed animals during read aloud
• that I'd lose my voice after a week of school and coaching volleyball
• that sometimes I'll only get ten minutes to eat lunch
• that if I don't get to school 30 minutes early, I will not get a moment to myself before the chaos begins

I'm thankful for...

• the high school senior girls who came in and checked out books just because they missed reading for fun. 
• having those same girls each tell me how much they loved the books, and that they stayed up too late reading them
• two sophomore girls helping me check in and shelve books during their study hall since I've been without an associate 
• administration that supports me having 5 robotics teams in grades 5-12
• Pete the Cat and how hard the kindergarteners laughed when he saw his belly button
• my junior high robotics class and how much they love building and programming LEGO robots
• the teachers at school that I also call my friends
• the kids at our school who always greet me and always wish me a good day when they come and go from the library
• the volleyball girls that I get to coach every day and how they put up with me

And, gotta end this post with some pictures of kids reading! 

The Good Stuff

While I did my best this summer to get rid of the "bad stuff," I also worked hard at creating more "good stuff."

I added Splat & Seymour and Elephant & Piggie to our character wall. 

I'm also creating a green screen with photo booth type props to encourage readers to share their favorite books and projects. I painted the speech/thought bubbles with chalkboard paint so we can write on them. I also painted a large picture frame to use, and the words "love" and some other fun shapes to showoff books. Hoping to get some teachers in to make some fun photos during inservice days.

Also cataloged the Iowa Choice books for all 4 levels. 

Then I spent lots of time reading those books, often on my deck with a glass of tea. 

But, I also read:

• on a train between Iowa and Philadelphia
• at the beach in Atlantic City
• at the Philadelphia Free Library
• in a frying pan in Brandon, Iowa
• at 2 pools and 1 waterpark
• in my car
• in my bed
• in New Jersey
• at 2 different hotels after a wedding and a concert
• at school

and others, I'm sure. 

Overall, I read 10.5 children's choice, 5 teen award, 5 high school award, and 20 goldfinch award books. Plus, a wordless book and a teacher's book club book, and a book I thought was on the teen list, but was actually on it last year. Plus, I'm about 3/4 done with The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller, which is a great read about how to turn kids into readers. I'd say this has been quite the successful reading summer!

2,946

Two thousand, nine hundred and forty six.

Let that number soak in a little bit. Say it again.

That's how many books I weeded from the library this summer.

2,946.


And here's a little bit about why...

This book started being circulated in 1979...

Paddington was hard to part with, can't lie about that.

Look at those glasses. The Goats?

Some of the elementary fiction I said buh-bye to.

These holiday books couldn't be any older. I think the pilgrims wrote them themselves.

At some point, a librarian crossed out in permanent marker all of the lines in Red Riding Hood that were about wine. Seriously.

In case you were interested about current country music? Ugh.

Look at that camera. This book was copyrighted in the '80's.

I'm quite sure this is from the Ice Age.

This might just be my favorite. How can we telephone from inside a car?! 

I know that discarding so many books might bring me some heat, but if you look at those pictures, I think they justify the tossing. 

16 years is the average age of our elementary picture books.

11 years is the average age of our elementary chapter books. 

When was the last time you went to the library or book store to pick something up from 1997?

That's what I thought.

2,946.

And the best part is, this doesn't even include my HS non-fiction, almost all of which I want to part with. We'll save that for another post, though.